My DD9 has been on Biphentin for about 2.5 yrs. It is a slower-release from of ritalin and she has had good results with it. During her first few weeks, while we were trying to figure out dosing, she did have side effects that included mood swings. I think we inadvertently made it worse by not giving her the med on the weekends. It was like a rollercoaster for her and her body never got a chance to adjust. Once we saw the error of our ways and medicated her each day of the week, the mood swings stopped witin a week or two. We have tried to up her dose twice, and both times we her mood swings became quite severe and we had to go back to the lower dose. This also occured when we tried to different medications.
Unfortunately, it can be a bit of a guessing game in the beginning with sorting out the best medication for you child and the ideal dose. We were advised to give each change 1-2 weeks to take complete effect and for side effects to settle down.
Good luck!
Edited to add: My DD never did tolerate standard Ritalin, she need the slow release version.
